North Shore Artisan Market adds Winnetka this year

Winnetka’s summer celebrations will get a new kickoff event this year, as the Village Council gave the green light to an artisan market that has seen success in Chicago and other suburbs.

The inaugural Artisan Market, which will be held May 30-31 at the Elm Street Metra parking lot, is organized by INV Marketing Group under the name North Shore Artisan Market. The council on March 3 approved the group’s request to use the parking lot for the market.

INV Marketing Group is behind the Chicago Artisan Market, which is held in the Chicago neighborhoods of Fulton Market and Ravenswood, in addition to Oak Brook and Naperville, according to Hannah Lipman, Winnetka’s deputy village manager.

Lipman added that the North Shore Artisan Market operates events in Northbrook and Wilmette.

“The market will be free to the public and expects to attract residents and visitors to the area, supporting local businesses and activating the public space around the train station,” Lipman told the council.

Jonathan Smith, managing partner of INV Marketing Group, said the group has hosted more than 75 artisan markets across the Chicago area, and featured in total more than 1,000 artisans and small businesses.

“Each one of our markets has roughly 100 artisan vendors in the areas of food, fashion, home goods and functional and decorative art,” Smith said. “We’re not a farmers market and we’re not a fine arts market. We showcase artisans and small businesses who design and make things locally, both in the Chicago area and throughout the Midwest.”

He added that the North Shore Artisan Market likes to host its suburban events near train stations as a way of encouraging guests to visit via train, especially after the pandemic.

In fact, he said the North Shore Artisan Market’s logo is an homage to the North Shore Line, a former railroad that provided service from Chicago to downtown Milwaukee from 1960-1963.

“Our vendors, I think you’ll find, are hard-working people who embody a city that works mentality,” Smith said. “And we’ve found that giving local and area shoppers the chance to meet them not only makes for a good community event, but it also brings goodwill and incremental sales to surrounding businesses.”

Smith added that the markets are mainly promoted via social media and through an email list of 50,000.

Trustee Bridget Orsic believes that residents will be supportive of the Artisan Market.

“Our residents love to have reasons to go outside, congregate, walk around, buy things,” she said. “And we had people last year at the farmers market come up to the booth and suggest other kinds of markets during the time that the farmers market wasn’t in session, so this is awesome.”

It was also noted that the Artisan Market is scheduled to occur the week before the farmers market begins, so there will be no conflict between the two events, which are both held at the train station.

Village President Bob Dearborn also said that the Winnetka Music Festival and Fourth of July celebrations will be in the weeks following the Artisan Market.

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